If you’re video-chatting on Zoom, broadcasting a show on YouTube, or starting an esports career by streaming on Twitch, you know how annoying a laggy livestream can be.

All video streamers have to deal with it. To help smooth out, speed up, and minimize your video streaming issues, here are a few tried and tested tips. (Note: I stream from a Mac, but I added a few tips for Windows users as well.)

Plug directly into your modem

This may seem like the most obvious one, but we have a lot of new livestreamers out there. And honestly, even grizzled livestream vets such as myself forget to plug in directly to the modem sometimes.

Laggy livestreams are usually caused by one of two things: you’re either having a problem with your internet connection or you’re overloading your computer. When possible, you should be streaming using a wired connection. Plug that ethernet cable directly from your modem to your computer. It will speed up your live video stream, and is more reliable than a WiFi connection.

What if you don’t have an ethernet port on, say, your new MacBook? Don’t worry. You have options. You can buy a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter for less than $30. 

If your issue is that your connection is dropping because you’re too far away from your modem and router, you can buy a mesh WiFi system. These devices will give your WiFi signal a boost and extend its range. They can be a bit costly, though, starting at $200. 

Another option is to buy a better wireless router. Those too can range in price from under $100 to more than $350.

Mesh WiFi systems

• Google Nest WiFi 
• TP-Link Deco M9 Plus 

Wireless routers

• Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300
• Netgear Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart WiFi Router

Check your stream settings

There’s not too much you can do on your end if your internet service provider is what’s causing your livestream problems. You’ll need upload speeds of at least 4 Mbps if you want to stream live video in HD. (You can check with a service like Speedtest, which, full disclosure, is owned by Mashable parent company J2.) If you’re not getting that from your ISP, you can upgrade your plan or go with a different service provider. 

If that’s not an option, you can help by changing some settings on the app you’re using to stream live video. Now, not all streaming software will allow you to do this, but for this example, let’s go with the most popular (and free) option: OBS.

If you find your video stream is lagging, change your output settings in OBS to 720p (Resolution: 12880×720). I know, I know, your favorite YouTubers are all uploading 4K footage now, at the very least you could stream livevideo in 1080p, right? I promise you, the majority of your viewers will not notice the difference in output … especially on a livestream. If your choices are 720p or a choppy output, I guarantee they will prefer the former.

You can now also knock your video bitrate down. Bitrates are basically how many bits of data you’re sending and how quickly they’re being sent. The higher quality the image, the higher your bitrate will need to be for a smooth picture. With your streaming video quality set to 720p, setting your video bitrate to around 35000kb per second should give you a great image.

Not only will these setting changes help your laggy livestream if your issues are internet related, but they’ll be a boost if your problems stem from CPU performance too.

Using an external drive

One tip that was recently recommended to me by a fellow streamer was to run apps and processes from an external drive. 

I had to try this out. First, what external drive would best handle the situation? After some research and even hopping on a call with the product team at Western Digital, I settled on G-Technology’s G-Drive USB-C external drive. These drives are commonly used for video production and backup storage as they are known for being fast, reliable, high-performance drives. You can buy one starting at around $150.

If you’re really on a budget, a portable MyPassport hard drive from Western Digital costs a little over $50. If you’re looking for a faster budget option, I’ve only heard good things about the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD, which starts at around $75.

Now, when I purchased my MacBook Pro years ago, I bought it with livestreaming and video editing in mind, so I have a fairly fast computer. But, I can totally see how running a stream from a fast Solid State Drive would be faster than doing it on an older computer with a slow internal hard drive.

In a test run, I switched it up. I ran the livestream off the internal drive and other apps I use while streaming, like Google Chrome, off the G-Drive. Chrome is notorious for hogging disk space. With the external drive taking a load off my MacBook, I noticed the hum of the internal fan, which can get pretty loud during a video stream, was much quieter. Saving my livestream recordings to the external drive also helped free up disk space and deal with a sometimes noticeable slowdown on my MacBook Pro when live.

And here’s a great thing if you’re a Mac user. If you just want to run apps off your external drive, you don’t need to install an OS on it and make it bootable. I literally just dragged and dropped apps from my internal SSD to the G-Drive. Mac apps, which use the .app file extension, are essentially folders. Everything you need to run the app is packaged inside so it makes things really simple to move around.

If you can’t go out and buy a completely new computer with maxed out specs for streaming, an external drive could be an affordable solution. 

External drives

• G-Technology G-Drive USB-C 
• SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD

Time for a new computer?

Let’s say you have a computer that is about a decade old and you’re ready to invest in a new one. What should you buy for livestreaming? 

It depends. If you’re looking to go live, with just you talking into a webcam, nearly any modern computer can handle it. I mean, your iPhone or Android device can accomplish that. But, if you’re looking for something more advanced for a full-blown livestream show with guests, screensharing, layers of graphics, or even game streaming, there are some specs you need to pay attention to.

My MacBook Pro has an Intel Core i7 quadcore processor with 16GB of RAM. It easily does everything I need it to do, but often the fan will whir at audible levels. 

You’ll see some guides out there saying you should have a minimum of 4GB of RAM but recommend 8GB. Honestly, don’t listen to that. Go with 16GB of RAM. This will really help cut down on choppiness and slowdowns, especially when multitasking. If you’ll be using other programs with your livestream, you’ll want 16GB minimum. If you’ll be gaming on Twitch, you’ll likely want even more.

If you’re opting to build a cheap PC, a good budget processor is the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 for about $150. However, I see that the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is only about $40 more and has much better reviews. 

Close everything you’re not using

I bet you’d be fairly shocked if you knew how many apps are open and running in the background right now on your computer. An obvious place to look If you’re on a Mac is right there on your menu bar. How many menu bar apps are open?

You need to close out all those background processes that aren’t necessary. The only things that should be taking up precious memory, CPU, and disk space should be what you need to run your stream. You might even have apps like Google Backup and Sync transferring large files over your internet connection, mucking up your upload speeds, without even knowing it.

And there you have it. A few simple tips to enhance your livestreaming experience. If you follow these tips, they should help you get rid of laggy streams… or at the very least make the issue bearable.

Read the original article here!

Learn more about G-Technology here!

Watch our Western Digital Webinar here!

Learn more about SanDisk here!

“After we went through all the emotions of losing our full season, we started going through how we were going to bring the sport to the world during the COVID crisis.”

THE PROBLEM

When delivering elite live beach volleyball to global fans around the world, Amazon Prime and NBC turned to the Millicast real time streaming service and BirdDog IP cameras to ensure their producers have a high-quality, low latency live feed for remote production.

AVP is the premiere Pro Beach Volleyball league featuring the world’s elite players. In 2020, AVP, like many sports organizations, had to postpone it’s competition schedule due to stay-at home orders.

However, it returned to competition in July with the first of three tournaments to be held in Long Beach, California. With no fans in attendance, AVP wanted to find a way to engage and interact with their audience.

THE SOLUTION

To make sure the best views and angles, rallies and spikes, were enjoyed by viewer, the producers turned to Millicast’s WebRTC platform to enable their remote production team to view and mix multiple feeds in real-time.

This use case was unique because both the production and delivery of the stream were made possible with near-zero latency with a geographically distributed team running consumer grade software and hardware over a public internet connection.

This is a new standard in sports streaming.

THE WORKFLOW

High-quality BirdDog PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras are controlled by remote operators, and the stream sent to remote editors via the WebRTC media protocol. WebRTC is the fastest, most reliable, streaming protocol available today.

The editors then mix the streams and send the final output to Amazon Prime Video viewers around the world.

All of this – from court to viewer – in less than a second.

“We have a really great group who have worked around the clock to make this happen. It has been a journey, but everyone has come together, and we’re excited to bring this to the fans.”

Josh Glazebrook, AVP Creative Director

Read the original article here!

Learn more about BirdDog here!

Check out our webinar about BirdDog PTZ Cameras here!

“We’ve been shooting an annual supercar event in California for the last few years, and always struggled to come up with a system we liked for backing up footage each day. This year, we asked G-Technology for some advice, and they loaned us two Shuttle XL TB3 RAIDs to test out. Using those G-Tech RAIDs, a few G-Tech SSDs, and Sandisk C-Fast cards, and a laptop, we were able to come up with a workflow we really love. Not only is it safe and reliable, but it saved us a ton of time and anguish. There are a million different ways to make sure your footage is safely backed up, so this video not only shows the data management workflow we’re using, but details a few things you might want to consider when designing the data management workflow for your next project.”

Complicated Things

Check out the video on YouTube here!

Learn more about G-Technology here!

At Simplylive we are remote production experts; in fact, you could say that it is in our DNA. Every one of our ViBox systems are designed at their core for remote production. Its modern, forward-thinking architecture allows the UI’s to operate independently of the server, enabling an unparalleled level of workflow flexibility.  For example, the ViBox server can be located in-venue with your cameras, while your operators work from your production center – or even from home.  What’s more, your remote operators don’t need to be in the same location; they can be in different rooms, buildings, or in completely different cities!  And by significantly reducing the bandwidth required, our new UI Gateway adds the missing link to making these remote production workflows affordable.

ViBox remote production workflows allow you to:

• Operate safely and effectively in todays new production reality by significantly reducing the number of people required on-site.
• Increase productivity by allowing your operator(s) to produce multiple shows or games consecutively without ever leaving home.
• Reduce travel, shipping, and venue costs by reducing the amount of equipment and space required.
• Maintain production quality by realizing gains in simplicity, flexibility, and costs savings with no trade-offs in the high-quality look and feel of your productions.

Unique Benefits of ViBox Remote Production

• UI operates independently of the backend server – From its ultra-intuitive UI to its common backend software architecture, every aspect of ViBox was designed with remote operation in mind.  By having the UI separated, your operator(s) can be located literally anywhere; in the control room, at the broadcast center, or even at home.  And, with the ability to log-in to ViBox servers at multiple different locations without the need to reconfigure the system, the potential productivity gains are massive.
• Redundant operation – Because the backend server is not dependent on the operator UI to function, if the connection between the two is ever lost your program is not stopped.  Another user can simply log-in to the backend and pick-up the production right where it was left off.
• Small footprint – Unlike other so-called remote production solutions, ViBox requires an extremely small footprint.  In fact, it’s literally just a PC and touchscreen.  No large control panels or racks of gear required!
• Future proof – Our modern software-defined architecture is incredibly scalable and intrinsically migrate-able to the cloud – so your investment is future-proofed.

ViBox Remote Workflow Examples

All ViBox systems by default have remote production capabilities built in. With setup only taking a few minutes, your operators can now be anywhere on the same LAN as the Backend server. By simply logging in, your operators can produce the show in the control room next door, at their desk, or across campus.  Operationally, the Backend sends compressed proxies of all required video sources to the User’s software (that software being the All-in-one, SloMo, or Refbox). That software then sends back the User’s commands for switching the show and the Backend server generates the program feed.

​Remote Production with the UI Gateway

​With the addition of our UI Gateway, the amount of bandwidth required for remote operation can be reduced 20X to as low as 5Mb/s per user. This makes the connection between the Backend and the operators possible over the public Internet. Productions at stadiums, venues and OB trucks with limited network connectivity can now be produced totally remotely, either at home or at the office, with operation being perceptively indiscernible to the Operators.

Networked Servers with the UI Gateway

With the ability to network together V8 and V16 servers, all video sources from one system are available to the users on the other. By pairing with the UI Gateway, it allows for two multi-user productions over the Internet simultaneously. With both V16 servers at the stadium, in this example two operators are working at the Broadcast Center, while a third is working from home.

Learn more about SimplyLive here!

Check out these SimplyLive Tutorials here!

Broadfield is the US Distribution partner for SimplyLive and we are always looking for new resellers. Call 800-634-5178 to learn more.

Check out some highlights from this article from Telestream to learn more.

Wirecast is a robust video switching software capable of producing professional, live broadcasts on the web. Wirecast is both affordable and easy to use. It is the only software available for Mac and PC, giving customers versatility in the operating system they are comfortable with or use during their daily workflows. In the broadcast world, not being locked to one platform is key. Every workflow is different and having support for both operating systems gives you the flexibility you need.

In this changing world, some may argue that PC is more dominant, and the Mac is an afterthought for daily computing needs. I like the flexibility of using Wirecast on a Mac because of Apple Script. Apple Script gives a user the ability to create automation features for software. Wirecast is no different. Sometimes my workflow calls for the ability to control Wirecast when I’m not even in my studio. If I’m remote and need to trigger a shot on location back in my studio, I can set Apple Script up to trigger shots in Wirecast via email.

On Windows, the flexibility is in building your machine, and access to more hardware instead of proprietary hardware and software. For example, Apple uses specific graphics cards in their products and you don’t have a lot of choices on the graphics cards. For those who aren’t technically savvy, this is fine but for those that tinker and understand hardware, this is a limitation or even a drawback. Having the flexibility to customize and build a PC enables customers who may be more familiar with PC hardware and software to customize a system to their budget, specs, and liking.

Sometimes there is a need to mix operating systems in a single production or between studios. Having the flexibility on both platforms using tools like NDI, web stream plugin, and IP cameras keep customers happy that they are not locked to one platform or the other.

Hi guys,

Welcome back to the blog and another episode of My workflow with G-Technology.

This time I’m going to talk about the importance of speed vs. capacity, and the different mobile drives I use personally. Since G-Technology offers a wide range of portable storage solutions with different features, I thought it’d make sense to highlight each of them and explain how I use them in different parts of my process. Hopefully, this gives you guys a better understanding of what would fit your very own creative workflow best.

Speed vs. Capacity

We creators live in a complex world, dealing with all kinds of different media types and tools to get the job done. The imaging technology industry proceeds very fast and every year or so, we see big leaps in sensor development and resolution. This means, that files sizes not only get bigger and bigger, we also need to keep up with the processing power of our overall environment, in order to deal with the ever-growing content. So when it comes to investing into new gear, especially the one on which we process and store our content, each decision has to be made very carefully.

G-Technology’s portable solutions

There’re a couple of factors to take into consideration, when dealing with mobile storage solutions.

One of them is the environment in which you plan to use these drives. Depending on your type of photography for example, you’ll find yourself in very demanding conditions, dealing with rain, snow or lots of sand. So the reliability of your drives under these conditions should be your highest priority. And while regular hard drives have moving parts built-in, which could fail in very rough conditions or when you drop them, SSDs on the other side come without this weak point.

Another big factor to consider is the type of digital media you have to deal with. You might be a regular photographer, dealing with medium sized files of a 30MP camera, but you might also be dealing with high resolution 4k RAW footage from a Canon C300 while being out in the field for weeks, capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments. For the latter, you obviously would need much more capacity to offload and backup your content in-between the shoots. Additionally, if you need to edit some of your images or footage on location to deliver it to a client asap, you obviously would need to take speed into consideration as well.

You see, it’s a pretty tough topic and not an easy decision to make at all. And while SSDs tend to offer more and more capacity these days, they come at a pretty high price point while not reaching near the sizes available by their traditional siblings.

Ruggedized and blazingly fast: G-DRIVE mobile SSD & mobile Pro SSD

Let’s start right off the bat with some of the fastest and most reliable solutions available on the market. You need a ridiculously fast and insanely tough portable drive, which will never let you down? Look no further and get yourself a G-DRIVE mobile SSD or it’s even faster, slightly bigger brother, the G-DRIVE mobile Pro SSD.

G-Technology G-DRIVE mobile Pro SSD

The G-DRIVE mobile SSD features transfer speeds up to 560MB/s and a backwards compatible USB-C port, to keep it ready for a variety of laptop generations. It offers an IP67 rating, which makes it water and dust resistant. The G-DRIVE mobile SSD will also survive drops from a 3 meters height and pressures up to 1000 lb. It’s available up to 2TB in size and its small footprint makes it the perfect choice when travelling in tough environments. Editing native 4K footage from this drive is as easy as plugging it in and getting started.

The G-DRIVE mobile Pro SSD on the other hand brings it to a whole new level in terms of speed. The drive clocks in at a tremendous transfer rate of up to 2800MB/s. It offers the same drop and crush protection like its smaller brother, the mobile SSD and only lacks the IP67 rating. But if pure speed is what you need, this is what you should get. And all this fits in the palm of your hand. The G-DRIVE mobile Pro SSD offers Thunderbolt 3 technology and its transfer rates let you you edit multi-stream 8K footage at full frame rate and transfer as much as a terabyte of content in seven minutes or less wherever you are.

G-Technology G-DRIVE mobile Pro SSD during a speed test

Both of these drives are my first choice when I have to travel light and still don’t want to compromise in performance and durability. They almost don’t add any weight to my overall luggage, yet they’re as fast as it gets with nowadays SSDs available on the market. I mainly use these drives to quickly edit new projects or batch edit a stack of high resolution images, whenever time matters or the type of content demands this type of performance.

Believe me, once you tried one of these bad boys there’s no way back to a regular hard drive for editing content or quickly backing up large files during a trip, especially so in tough environments.

No-Compromise flexibility: G-DRIVE ev RaW & RaW SSD

You guys know how much I love a well-structured and thought-out workflow. From being at a location and shooting these unique moments to being back in the office and finishing projects, before delivering them to a client. Not only do I require reliable and flexible solutions, which can adapt to my ever-changing conditions, but I also need as much performance and capacity as possible at the same time.

I’ve dealt with a bunch of different approaches and solutions from all kinds of manufactures. And while most of them promise a lot, they usually can only convince in either the speed or the capacity department. Also, when mixing up different technologies, you have to deal with incompatibility, different cables and ports and in case of issues with different manufactures and their support as well. Being a professional, this can cost you not only a lot of time but also a lot of money. Especially when dealing with client projects and tough deadlines.

Thankfully, there is a solution to get rid of all these problems: The G-Technology Evolution Series.

G-Technology G-DRIVE ev RaW & ev RaW SSD

The Evolution Series is a highly flexible, reliable and cross-functional set of integrated solutions to support each creative workflow end-to-end. Talking about mobile drives, G-Technology offers the G-DRIVE ev RaW and a faster version, the G-DRIVE ev RaW SSD. I talked about these drives in my prior posts already, but let me highlight a couple things again.

Both drives are built from a super lightweight enclosure, featuring a custom polycarbonate construction. They’re protected by a rubber bumper and can survive drops from 1.5 meters. The regular ev RaW drive features capacities of up to 4TB and rates of up to Up to 136MB/s. The SSD version comes with a 425MB/s transfer rate and offers sizes up to 2TB. Both drives are Evolution Series compatible and can be used as either a stand-alone solution or plugged into a G-SPEED Shuttle with ev Series Bay Adapters to offload and synchronize more complex projects.

G-Technology G-DRIVE ev RaW & ev RaW SSD

I use both of these drives on a regular and the whole Evolution Series system simplified my workflow to where I feel having more time being outside and creating rather than spending hours dealing with backups and bottlenecks of other approaches. While I use the regular G-DRIVE ev RaW drives to store and backup finished projects and bringing them along during my trips, I really enjoy the faster SSDs to quickly backup and edit content while being on location. I don’t need to wait until I’m back home and can start right away with the same performance I’m used to when working with big RAID solutions. Both drives look and feel the same, and the integration with the high-performance G-Technology Shuttle solutions make them the perfect combination between speed and capacity for working professionals of all kinds.

As tough as it gets: The ArmorATD

Last but not least, let’s talk about something brand new: The G-Technology ArmorATD

G-Technology invited me to a special launch event in Munich a couple days ago, where they officially introduced their newest member to the lineup of portable drives, the ArmorATD. And let me tell you right away, this drive not only sits nicely between their already existing products, it’s also looking damn sexy.

G-Technology ArmorATD

The ArmorATD is a rugged, all-terrain portable hard drive that is relentless under pressure of up to 1000lb and is shock, rain, dust and crush resistant to protect your content from out in the field to back in the studio. The USB-C connectivity offers support for Thunderbolt 3, and an USB‑C to USB-A adapter for USB 3.0 compatibility is included as well. The drive offers transfer rates of up to 140MB/s and capacities of up to 4TB, which is plenty of room to backup your valuable data when being out in the wild. The drives come formatted for Windows and Mac right out of the box and are covered by a 3 years warranty from G-Technology directly.

G-Technology ArmorATD with accessories

I can’t wait to put this drive to test during the next months. Especially when travelling to some of the more tropical regions, dealing with very high humidity and dusty environments, the ArmorATD will be my preferred option for bringing along my existing projects and also for backing up the content I’ll create during my trips.

You may ask yourself why not using one of the G-DRIVE ev RaW or G-DRIVE mobile SSD drives instead? Well, while the G-DRIVE ev RaW drives are somewhat protected against drops, they definitely don’t offer any protection against outside influences like water, snow, dust and high pressure. The G-DRIVE mobile SSD drives on the other hand offer the same level of protection as the ArmorATD, but are limited in terms of capacity, only going up to 2TB. Also, they come in at a much higher cost. They’re my first choice for editing big sized content and projects, where the speed they offer is required. The ArmorATD though is the perfect choice for backing up and bringing along a variety of already existing content during my trips to harsh environments. So I can always be sure my valuable data is as safe as it gets and all of this is available at a very attractive price point.

Conclusion

There you have it guys, I hope you enjoyed reading along. Picking the right type of storage solution is a complex decision to make. It mainly depends on your personal needs and the types of media you deal with.

G-Technology’s portable solutions

In a world where we creators constantly push the boundaries of whats possible, we have to fully rely on our tools to get the job done. Like with gear in general, there isn’t a single solution for your overall content workflow. In fact, it’s about the right combination of tools to perfectly support your creative vision. In my humble opinion, G-Technology offers the perfect lineup of reliable storage solutions to get any of your jobs done. I truly trust their products in any situation and I’m happy that I finally can concentrate on what I do best: Being creative.

So which one is for you?

In case you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to me at any time.

Thanks for reading and following along!

Talk soon,

Chris

@chrismartinscholl

Check out the full article HERE

We read how Avid was taking lessons from its past transgressions and listening to its clients. Avid was taking tours around the industry and listening to what customers and artists needed from them. So was Media Composer with Symphony ever be the finishing tool of Avid DS was? It’s starting to look that way.

It appears from the outside that Rosica is indeed the breath of fresh air Avid needed. At NAB 2019, Avid teased the next iteration of Media Composer, version 2019, with overhauled interface and improvements, such as a 32-bit float color pipeline workflow complete with ACES color management and a way to deliver IMF packages; a new engine with a distributed processing engine; and a whole new product called Media Composer|Enterprise, all of which will really help sell this new Media Composer. But the 2019 update is coming soon we looked at Media Composer 2018 v12, which has many features editors, assistants, and even colorists have been asking for: a new Avid Titler, shape-based color correction (with Symphony option), new multicam features and more.

Titling

Titling is always a tricky subject. Avid has gone through some rough seas when dealing with how to fix the leaky hole known as the Avid Title Tool. The classic Avid Title Tool was basic but worked. However, if you aligned something in the Title Tool interface to Title Safe zones, it might jump around once you close the Title Tool interface. Fonts wouldn’t always stay the same when working across PC and MacOS platforms. The list goes on, and it is excruciatingly annoying.

In 2002, Avid tried to appease creators and introduced the, at the time, a Windows-only titler: Avid Marquee. While Marquee was well-intentioned, it was extremely difficult to understand if you weren’t interested in 3D lighting, alignment and all sorts of motion graphics stuff that not all editors want to spend time learning. So, most people didn’t use it, and if they did it took a little while for anyone taking over the project to figure out what was done.

In December of 2014, Avid leaned on the New Blue Titler, which would work in projects higher than 1920×1080 resolution. Unfortunately, many editors ran into a very long render at the end, and a lot bailed on it. Most decided to go out of house and create titles in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. While this all relates to my experience, I assume others feel the same.

In Avid Media Composer 2018, the company has introduced the Avid Titler, which in the Tools menu is labeled: Avid Titler +. It works like an effect rather than a rendered piece of media like in the traditional Avid Title Tool, where an Alpha and a Fill layer worked. This method is similar to how NewBlue or Marquee functioned. However, Avid Titler works by typing directly on the record monitor; adding a title is as easy as marking an in and out point and clicking on the T+ button on the timeline.

You can specify things like kerning, shadow, outlines, underlines, boxes, backgrounds and more. Under Face, the rotation settings rotate individual letters and not the entire word by default. Avid said they are looking into making the entire word rotation option the default in the mini toolbar of Avid Titler. So stay tuned.

Also, you can map your fast forward and rewind buttons to “Go To Next/Previous Event.” This allows you to jump to your next edits in the timeline but also to the next/previous keyframes when in the Effect Editor. Typically, you click on the scrub line in the record window and then you can use those shortcuts to jump to the next keyframe. In the Avid Titler, it would just start typing in the text box. Furthermore, when jumping out of Effect Editor mode and back into Edit Mode, you usually hit “y,” but that did not get me out of Effects Mode (Avid did mention they are working on updates to the Avid Titler that would solve this issue). The new Avid Titler definitely has some bugs and/or improvements that are needed, and they are being addressed, but it’s a decent start toward a modern title editor.

Color

If you want advanced color correction built into Media Composer, then you are going to want the Symphony option. Media Composer with the Symphony option allows for more detailed color correction using secondary color corrections as well as some of the newer updates, including shape-based color correction. Before Resolve and Baselight became more affordable, Symphony was the gold standard for color correction on a budget (and even not on a budget since it works so well in the same timeline the editors use). But what we are really here for is the 2018 v.12 update of Shapes.

With the Symphony option, you can now draw specific regions on the footage for your color correction to affect. It essentially works similarly to a layer-based system like Adobe Photoshop. You can draw shapes with the same familiar tools you are used to drawing with in the Paint or AniMatte tools and then just apply your brightness, saturation or hue swings in those areas only. On the color correction page you can access all of these tools on the right-hand side, including the softening, alpha view, serial mode and more.

When using the new shape-based tools you must point the drop-down menu to “CC Effect.” From there you can add a bunch of shapes on top of each other and they will play in realtime. If you want to lay a base correction down, you can specify it in the shape-based sidebar, then click shape and you can dial in the specific areas to your or your client’s taste. You can check off the “Serial Mode” box to have all corrections interact with one another or uncheck the box to allow for each color correction to be a little more isolated — a really great option to keep in mind when correcting. Unfortunately, tracking a shape can only be done in the Effect Editor, so you need to kind of jump out of color correction mode, track, and then go back. It’s not the end of the world, but it would be infinitely better if you could track efficiently inside of the color correction window. Avid could even take it further by allowing planar tracking by an app like Mocha Pro.

The new shape-based corrector also has an alpha view mode identified by the infinity symbol. People often find myself making mattes in the Paint tool, but it can now be done right in the color correction tool. The Symphony option is an amazing addition to Media Composer if you need to go further than simple color correction but not dive into a full color correction app like Baselight or Resolve. In fact, for many projects you won’t need much more than what Symphony can do. Maybe a +10 on the contrast, +5 on the brightness and +120 on the saturation and BAM a finished masterpiece. Kind of kidding, but wait until you see it work.

Multicam

The final update to cover is multicam editing and improvements to editing group clips. Literally days of grouping and regrouping could have been avoided with the Edit Group feature. You can now edit groups in Media Composer by creating a group, right-clicking on that group and selecting Edit Group. From there, the group will now open in the Record Monitor as a sequence, and from there you can move, nudge and even add cameras to a previously created group. Once you are finished, you can update the group and refresh any sequences that used that group to update if you wish. One issue is that with mixed frame rate groups, Avid says committing to that sequence might produce undesirable effects.

Cost Entry

How much does Media Composer cost these days? While you can still buy it outright, it seems a bit more practical to go monthly since you will automatically get updates, but it can still be a little tricky. Do you need PhraseFind and/or ScriptSync? Do you need the Symphony option? Do you need to access shared storage? There are multiple options depending on your needs. If you want everything, then Media Composer Ultimate for $49 per month is what you want. If you want Media Composer and just one add-on, like Symphony, it will cost $19 per month plus $199 per year for the Symphony option. If you want to test the water before jumping in, you can always try Media Composer First.

Summing Up

In the end, it is the most reliable nonlinear editor supporting multiple editors in a shared network environment. While Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro X and Blackmagic Resolve are offering fancy new features and collaboration modes, Avid seems to always hold stable. These new improvements and a UI overhaul (set to debut in May), new leadership from Rosica, and the confidence of Rosica’s faithful employees all seem to be paying off and getting Avid back on the track they should have always been on.

Check out the full article HERE!

Learn more about Avid HERE

“The versatility of the Avid platform has been a foundation in allowing us to evolve and adapt to our customers’ needs,” states Paul Clennell, Chief Technology Officer at dock10. “By providing new products, new workflows, and new capabilities for our customers, Avid is allowing dock10 to push the boundaries of what is in the market today.”

dock10 is the UK’s leading television facility and one of Europe’s top media services providers. Located in the heart of MediaCityUK, in Manchester, England, dock10 runs a 250,000 square foot facility with state-of-the-art studios and post-production services. The company launched in 2011 as a key supplier to the BBC focusing on producing live sports and children’s content. Today, dock10 studios and post-production services are involved in the production of some of the UK’s most popular television shows, including Happy Valley, Match of the Day, and The Voice, as well as VFX-based commercials and corporate videos.

dock10 also manages the MediaCityUK network across its 36-acre campus, connecting more than 250 digital and creative businesses. Working in partnership with Avid, dock10 is expanding this network beyond the MediaCityUK campus into the global media production market. “As Avid delivers us new products we’re able to deliver new workflows and in turn provide new capabilities to our clients,” states Clennell. “This gives our customers the flexibility to adapt how they produce content and provides opportunities to produce content that previously may have been unavailable…read more

Today, I’ll highlight the ‘DataLink Timer’ web app. This tool will create a visible countdown timer to use in title templates. Formatting controls are available for the hours, minutes and seconds display. Also, the timer can be set to follow a keyer on the system, allowing you to start and stop the timer from the switcher interface itself.

The video at the link contains more information on how to use this application.

DataLink Timer

This web app will create a countdown timer DataLink variable that you can use in a TriCaster title template. Formatting for the time display is supported along with the ability to manually control the timer or set it to watch a keyer to start/stop as the keyer is turned of/off. This app requires TriCaster Advanced Edition.

http://kanelp7.wixsite.com/kanesworld/datalink-timer

Spreadsheet
This web app will allow you to import a spreadsheet of CSV (comma separated values) data. The information will be displayed in a spreadsheet-like view. The lines of data can be selected and pushed into DataLink values on to a TriCaster. A TriCaster with Advanced Edition is required.

http://kanelp7.wixsite.com/kanesworld/spreadsheeet

Piet Van den Eynde is a Belgian photographer and an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Certified Expert. He also gives workshops on using on- and off-camera flash and postprocessing with Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and plug-ins such as Nik Software. Recently he took two LaCie drives with him on a trip to India: a Thunderbolt SSD 1TB and a Rugged RAID 4TB.\

How To Edit, Sync and Manage Photos Across All Devices with Lightroom and LaCie Rugged.

Like most photographers, I have two computers: a laptop and a desktop. Alternately working on both is complicated, since it is not possible to put your Lightroom catalog on a network-attached storage (NAS). If your catalog is stored on your desktop but you want to edit on your laptop, one possible solution is to use Lightroom’s “Import and Export as Catalog” tool. But be aware: this is neither quick nor easy.

This implies exporting your photos as a catalog to an external hard drive, connecting this hard drive to your laptop, opening the exported catalog on the laptop, editing the photos, and then importing the modified catalog back into the main catalog on your desktop. If this sounds complicated, that is because it is. Decidedly something for more advanced users and not something you want to do a few times a day.

Another solution, although again not a favorable one: store your catalog on one or more external drives and connect these to the device you want to work on at that moment. Downside: lugging along a large external drive is not always convenient.

Smart Previews to the rescue!

Smart Previews, introduced in Lightroom 5, provides a solution. It allows you to — once and for all — transfer your Catalog folder (the one with Catalog, Previews and Smart Previews) to a fast-paced external hard drive.

Make sure this drive is as fast as possible — preferably a fast 7,200 RPM hard drive, or a Solid State Drive (SSD) such as the LaCie Thunderbolt SSD I discuss in this article — and that it has a fast interface: USB 3, Thunderbolt or USB-C…[continue reading]